550 THE STUDY OF INSECTS. 



prevent the beetles from depositing their eggs on the trees. 

 After a tree is once infested, the larvae should be cut out 

 with a gouge or a knife. Nursery stock that is infested should 

 be promptly burned. 



The Red-necked Agrilus, Agrilus ruficollis (Ag'ri-lus ruf- 

 ol'lis). This beetle (Fig. 664) is about three tenths 

 of an inch long. Its body is narrow and nearly cyl- 

 indrical. The head is of a dark-bronze color, the 

 prothorax of a beautiful coppery bronze, and the 

 wing covers black. The larva bores in the stems of 

 FIG. 664. raspberry and blackberry, causing a large swelling, 

 known as the Raspberry Gouty-gall. These galls should be 

 collected and burned in early spring. 



Family LAMPYRID^E (Lam-pyr'i-dae). 

 The Firefly Family or Lampyrids (Lam-py rids). 



During some warm, moist evening early in our Northern 

 June we are startled to see here and there a tiny meteor shoot 

 out of the darkness near at hand, and we suddenly realize that 

 summer is close upon us, heralded by her mysterious mes- 

 sengers, the fireflies. A week or two later these little torch- 

 bearers appear in full force, and the gloom that overhangs 

 marshes and wet meadows, the dusk that shrouds the banks 

 of streams and ponds, the darkness that haunts the borders 

 of forests, are illumined with myriads of flashes as these 

 silent, winged hosts move hither and thither under the cove." 

 of the night. 



The fireflies are soft-bodied beetles of medium or small 

 size, with slender, usually eleven-jointed, saw-like an- 

 tennae. The prothorax is expanded into a thin pro- 

 jecting margin, which in most cases completely 

 covers the head (Fig. 665). The wing-covers are 

 rather soft, and never strongly embrace the sides of FlG - 66 s- 

 the abdomen, as with most other beetles. 



Most members of this family are nocturnal insects, and 



